From Hitler's Doorstep

Neal H. Petersen

From Hitler's Doorstep

The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles, 1942–1945

Neal H. Petersen

“Petersen’s masterful selections in From Hitler's Doorstep are a distinguished and essential addition to the growing number of recent books dealing with resistance and intelligence in wartime Europe. . . . Petersen and the Penn State Press are to be congratulated on a meticulous, well-produced publication.” —H-Net Book Reviews

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For three years during World War II, future Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles commanded the OSS mission in Bern, Switzerland. From Hitler's Doorstep provides an annotated selection of his reports to Washington from 1942 to 1945.

Dulles was a leading source of Allied intelligence on Nazi Germany and the occupied nations. The messages presented in this volume were based on information received through agents and networks operating in France, Italy, Austria, Eastern Europe, and Germany itself. They deal with subjects ranging from enemy troop strength and military plans to political developments, support of resistance movements, secret weapons, psychological warfare, and peace feelers. The Dulles reports reveal his own vision of grand strategy and presage the postwar turmoil in Europe.

One of the largest collections of OSS records ever published, these telegrams and radiotelephone transmissions from the National Archives provide an exciting account of the course of the European war, offer insight on the development of American intelligence, and illuminate the origins of the Cold War. They will interest diplomatic and military historians as well as specialists on modern Europe. This volume is almost unique as document-based intelligence history and serves as a badly needed bridge between diplomatic history and intelligence studies.

“Petersen’s masterful selections in From Hitler's Doorstep are a distinguished and essential addition to the growing number of recent books dealing with resistance and intelligence in wartime Europe. . . . Petersen and the Penn State Press are to be congratulated on a meticulous, well-produced publication.” —H-Net Book Reviews

“This is a significant contribution to intelligence history and the history of World War II. Scholars in both fields will welcome it. There is nothing else like it.” —Robin W. Winks, Author of Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939-1961

Neal H. Petersen served for over twenty years in the Historical Office of the U.S. Department of State, retiring as Deputy Historian in 1988. He is the author of American Intelligence, 1775–1990: A Bibliographical Guide (1992).